A Big Collection of Tiny Books

Very Little Books at Lilly Library

   I was tempted to call this "Tiny Tomes," but that would be an oxymoron. I learned recently that there are around 16,000 miniature books in this Library at Indiana University in Bloomington. As I have noted, I think of "Libraries As Cabinets of Curiosities" and like it when they contain such things as books. I am pleased that the Hoosiers are still bothering with them even if they are small ones. 

  I noticed this perhaps because I remembered I had written something about tiny books. It turns out that I did so, way back in 2019, but it took me a while to find it since the Dutch term for them - "Dwarsliggers" - is buried in a post with the title "Tsundoku." That I know such things amazes me, almost as much as I am amazed by the fact that I will soon forget again what those words mean.

  

   The books were collected by two women and you can learn more about them by reading, "Ladies of the Lilly: Collectors Elisabeth Ball and Ruth Adomeit." Learn even more by looking at this article by Indiana Public Media which includes a YouTube video (2 min.): "Lilly Library Home to 16,000 Miniature Books," by Grace Marocco, March 29, 2024. 

   If that is not enough to entice you to go to Indiana, remember that Indiana University is a major repository for material relating to "America's Most Loved Reporter", Ernie Pyle, about whom MM has additional information. If you need more encouragement and are more interested in buildings than books, visit Columbus, Indiana, "An Architectural Mecca." 

A Very Big Library Donation at Davidson College
   I noticed this because a high school friend went to Davidson and I passed by there just recently. It is about thirty miles from Charlotte. I also noticed it because the total gift is $100 million and some of it will be used to keep and purchase actual books and periodicals. As I have complained, some libraries are getting rid of books to provide "Makerspaces" for students. I see that now that word is even found in Wikipedia - "Library Makerspace."   For more about Davidson see - "$25 Million Gift Names The George Lawrence Abernethy Library, Transforms Learning at Davidson College," Davidson College. 

A Small Bonus:
  Davidson is highly regarded. When my classmate enrolled in 1961, the school was all male and all white. Things have changed. You may know about it because Steph Curry attended and recently returned to get his degree.

WEATHER Feelings

"BUT, IT FEELS LIKE...." 
   The screen shot above was taken on the 24th of April when we returned from the south where we had ventured in search of warm breezes and some colour -- other than grey. If you are familiar with Fahrenheit you may recognize that the predicted temperature that day was below 50, although you should notice that it was going to feel even cooler, before things begin to feel much hotter. Apparently the weather in any season is now intolerable for many who feel it is too hot or cold. My complaint is not with the weather and it is a complaint with which you are familiar.
   Since I am not yet in blogging mode and far more important things should be undertaken, I will present here past pronouncements related to this subject. Out of fear of repeating myself, I went looking for them and you might as well benefit from my research since Mulcahy's Miscellany has no index. Besides, some of the posts contain better writing by other people. This list is not exhaustive and more weather-related items are found in, for example, the very popular feature "Beyond the Palewall." I need to remember this if I am low on subject matter and tempted to bring up the weather again.

"The Human Suffering Index" 
   The HSI sums things up pretty well as does the illustration by Edward Munch which you will recognize. Also included is, "The Dead of Winter" which helpfully includes a typically contrarian argument about the virtues of Fahrenheit over Celsius" for reporting the temperatures we feel. 

"The Wind Chill" is about it and also the "HUMIDEX," both of which are typically exaggerated as these quotations indicate:
"But why does every winter day have to be described as colder than it really is? Listen to the radio and count how often the announcer says: “ … but it’s going to feel like …” Increasingly I’m even hearing wind chill given more prominence than the actual temperature."
and:
"Here’s an example. On one day in a recent summer, I found Detroit and next-door Windsor with temperatures near 28 C. The Weather Network gave Detroit a “feels like” reading of 30.5. But in Windsor, Environment Canada had a humidex of 38."

"Weather Statement" includes an illustration which indicates that the "Summer" in Canada occupies only a tiny bit of our calendar and that soon we will be saying, "So Long Summer." 

The Bonus: The Answer to the Question, "What is a "Nice Day?"
"Have A Nice Day."

Post Script: Things Could Be Worse

All that is needed is another man and a horse.

 

  To make you feel better, I will suggest that you would feel worse if you were to wake up in Lahore, Pakistan, which is illustrated above and described below (from, the Washington Post, April 22, 2024, "As the Concrete World Comes Apart, I Hope For More Flowers in the Cracks," Mohsin, Hamid:)

"The first thing that strikes me about the world is that it is has become poisonous. We cannot breathe. From November until February, the blue sky is hidden behind a low ceiling of gray. This is not from clouds but from smoke. It is uncanny to take a flight in these months, to burst only seconds after takeoff into the blindingly bright light and see not a city but a gray blanket below. The cooler months used to be months of outdoor sports and running around with my cousins and shielding eyes with the blades of our hands from the sun. Now they are months when the land receives too little heat to push the smoke into the heavens, and so it settles all over the riverine plains, prevented from proceeding north by the mass of the Himalayas, choking us.
My children are not permitted to do outdoor sports in these months. Indoors, they sleep to the whirring sound of air purifiers, machines I had not imagined until recently. When we played in the winter as children, we would quench our thirst by working the shaft of the hand-pump in my grandparents’ house. Now, our children do not go out to play. The hand-pumps are all dry. We have depleted the aquifer. A machine bore is required to obtain water from hundreds of meters down, and that water too has been contaminated. Our world has become poisonous: The fireflies are gone, the children cough like smokers, the water is full of heavy metals. The economic miracle we have been promised has arrived, and it is a miracle of despoliation."

Aptronym Of The Week

David PECKER

   I have been away for a while and have done no blogging. I have returned home, but since it is sunny today this post will be brief, which is a good thing for you readers. The primary purpose is to push the post below down a bit. It is supposed to rain tomorrow, so I may get back to work - unless the neighbours come over to welcome us back and force us to celebrate too much. 

  You likely will have been following the many judicial proceedings south of our border and are familiar with the name above. It is the aptronym chosen. You may not be familiar with that word and, if not, read the aptly titled, "Aptronyms" in MM, where you will also learn about "inaptronyms", "nominative determinism" and "nominative contradeterminism". If you are a new reader, that substantive post is more typical of what is to be found in MM, than this rather shallow one, which will not bother to discuss derivative terms like, "peckerhead" or "dickhead."

 Pecker is the former publisher of the tabloid, National Enquirer, and can also take credit for involvement with other publications such as, Men's Fitness, Muscle and Fitness, Flex and Fit Pregnancy. As an indicator of their significance you should know that he abandoned a career as an accountant at Price Waterhouse, to produce them. 
  Pecker should be given credit for the photo above since I learned from him that, "The only thing that is important is the cover of a magazine." It is from a recent issue of the National Enquirer.  The editor, writer and CEO of Mulcahy's Miscellany will likely consider this strategy rather than work on their prose (note the "their", which the editor inserted.)

Source:
Note the singular usage since this post was not deeply researched. It is suggested that you simply use the Wikipedia entry for "David Pecker" rather than google the word "pecker." 

CANCON: 

"American Media's David Pecker Resigns From Postmedia Board:

U.S. Media Outlets Reported That He Was Granted Immunity by Federal Prosecutors in Connection With an Investigation into Payments Made During the 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign, Financial Post, Aug. 28, 2018.

"David Pecker, chairman of the company that publishes the National Enquirer, resigned from the board of Postmedia Network Canada Corp. and its news-publishing subsidiary on Tuesday....“We would like to sincerely thank David for his dedication and contributions to Postmedia,” Paul Godfrey, Postmedia’s executive chairman and chief executive, added in the statement. Pecker joined the board of Postmedia, Canada’s largest newspaper publisher with print, online and mobile titles including the National Post, in October of 2016. His resignation Tuesday was “effective immediately,” according to the statement.

Sources From The Other Side

 

The only "trigger warning" offered.

   Sixteen Sources For Testing Civility

   Recently in the Globe & Mail an open letter, from some important people addressed to Canada's leaders, was published in which it is stated that,  "We, the undersigned, are calling on you to address urgently the rise of incivility, public aggression and overt hatred that are undermining the peace and security of Canadian life." The editorial board at the G&M followed up by noting that civility was indeed in short supply and that, as the title states, "The Defence of Civility Rests On All Of Us," (Oct.2, 2024.) Challenges to the current orthodoxy have declined as incivility has increased. 
   The number of sources from which we get our news and opinions has also declined. Chances are likely that you watch the CBC or CTV or read whatever is left of your local paper, or the Globe, the Star, or one of the many publications produced by Postmedia. Good, bad and interesting ideas are often found elsewhere and authors who should be read are now encountered in unlikely journals or on unknown substacks.
   A short while ago I wrote in support of "Academic Freedom & Free Speech" and provided links to campuses where there are attempts to promote intellectual openness. I will now offer some sources which can be used to test the level of toleration on a campus near you, or to test the civility of those in your intellectual circle. 
   The sources offered are not wildly provocative and the ideas presented in them are not bizarre ones, offered by the deranged to purposely encourage uncivil reactions. If you look through the descriptions for all of the sources (taken from the sources) you will find little to disagree with if you value things like common sense, freedom, justice, equality, fairness and other eternal verities. On the other hand, if you can be described as a "progressive", you are likely to disagree with most of the things found in the sources below since they can be characterized loosely as "conservative."
   Below you will find links to think tanks, organizations and journals. Many are Canadian, but two are from Australia and most deal with the debates and issues found at universities. The words related to some of the names below, signify what follows - e.g. "Heterodox", "Controversial", "History Reclaimed" and especially "Unherd." The only words of advice I offered to my granddaughter as she headed off to university was "avoid the herd of independent minds."

  Here are the sixteen sources, but I could have made it seventeen by including The Frontier Centre for Public Policy.  They provide another example of an antithetical bibliography, in that some of the ideas expressed may be new to you since they are not often found, even in rebuttals, in publications most of which simply repeat the truisms of the current orthodoxy. Prepare yourselves and watch your head. For example, among the publications mentioned in the first source, you will find an article with the title, "DEI Should DIE" (it is already on life support south of here) and a "radical" book suggesting that Canada is not a bad country in which to live and that there is much in our past that should be cherished, not cancelled. 

The Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy  (CANADIAN)
"The Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy is a new think tank that aims to renew a civil, common-sense approach to public discourse and public policy in Canada.
Our vision:
A Canada where the sacrifices and successes of past generations are cherished and built upon; where citizens value each other for their character and merit; and where open inquiry and free expression are prized as the best path to a flourishing future for all."

C2C Journal: Ideas That Lead   (CANADIAN) - Journal
Founded in 2007 as a print and online publication, C2C Journal is now primarily an online magazine publishing original commentaries, stories, reviews and investigative reports. Aimed at a national Canadian audience of readers interested in fresh ideas and quality writing about current political, cultural and economic issues, C2C specializes in longer form journalism that provides more substance than most mainstream news products and is more engaging than most academic journals.
     C2C’s unabashed bias is in favour of free markets, democratic governance and individual liberty. We strive for balance, fairness and accuracy in our reporting and commentary. Our mission is to explore and develop “Ideas that Lead” by encouraging writers to push boundaries, challenge orthodoxies and advance arguments rooted in the values and principles of classical liberalism and western civilization."

Canadian Constitution Foundation (CANADIAN)
"The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) is a national and non-partisan charity. We are dedicated to defending the constitutionally protected rights and freedoms of Canadians, and to maintaining Canada’s constitution, including its federal structure and division of powers, as intended in the Constitution Act, 1867.... The CCF’s primary objective is to ensure that government power does not infringe on the rights and freedoms of Canadians, or disrupt the principles of Canadian federalism. The CCF advances these objectives by promoting civic engagement, awareness, and education regarding contemporary issues and developments in Canadian constitutional law. The CCF also initiates and intervenes in high-profile court cases, where it advocates against government overreach and urges courts to adhere to the written text and scheme of Canada’s Constitution.'

The Dorchester Review (CANADIAN) - Journal

The Dorchester Review is an extraordinary feast for the open mind, a rare species nowadays! There is simply no magazine in Canada like it.

FAIR - Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (United States)

"FAIR is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing civil rights and liberties for all, and promoting a common culture based on fairness, understanding, and humanity.

WE SEE PEOPLE FIRST.

FAIR advances Martin Luther King Jr’s guiding principle that we should be judged by the content of our character, not the color of our skin.

WE PROMOTE INCLUSION FOR EVERYONE. WE MEAN EVERYONE.

FAIR defends the rights and equality guaranteed to all human beings, without exception.

WE STAND UP TO BULLIES.

FAIR advocates for individuals who are threatened or persecuted for protected speech, held to a different standard of conduct, or denied rights or access based on their perceived identity group or perspective.

WE PROMOTE DISCOURSE.

FAIR supports respectful disagreement. We believe that bad ideas are best confronted with good ideas — never with censorship, dehumanization, deplatforming, or blacklisting."

 

FIRE - Foundation For Individual Rights and Expressions (United States)

"Since its founding more than two decades ago as the "Foundation for Individual Rights in Education," FIRE has become the nation’s leading defender of fundamental rights on college campuses through our unique mix of programming, including student and faculty outreach, public education campaigns, individual case advocacy, and policy reform efforts. In 2022, FIRE changed its name to the "Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression" and announced an expansion initiative into off-campus free speech advocacy and legal defense.

Heterodox Academy (United States)

"Heterodox Academy (HxA) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit membership organization of thousands of faculty, staff, and students committed to advancing the principles of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement to improve higher education and academic research…

We see an academy eager to welcome professors, students, and speakers who approach problems and questions from different points of view, explicitly valuing the role such diversity plays in advancing the pursuit of knowledge, discovery, growth, innovation, and the exposure of falsehoods."

History Reclaimed (United Kingdom - has Canadian contributors)

Our Mission

"The abuse of history for political purposes is as old as history itself.  In recent years, we have seen campaigns to rewrite the history of several democratic nations in a way that undermines their solidarity as communities, their sense of achievement, even their very legitimacy.

These ‘culture wars’, pursued in the media, in public spaces, in museums, universities, schools, civil services, local government, business corporations and even churches, are particularly virulent in North America, Australasia and the United Kingdom.  Activists assert that ‘facing up’ to a past presented as overwhelmingly and permanently shameful and guilt-laden is the way to a better and fairer future.  We see no evidence that this is true.  On the contrary, tendentious and even blatantly false readings of history are creating or aggravating divisions, resentments, and even violence.  We do not take the view that our histories are uniformly praiseworthy—that would be absurd.  But we reject as equally absurd the claim that they are essentially shameful."

The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal (North Carolina)

"What We Are Trying to Achieve

Our goals are to improve colleges and universities, especially in North Carolina.

We want to:

Increase the diversity of ideas taught, debated, and discussed on campus;

Encourage respect for the institutions that underlie economic prosperity and freedom of action and conscience;

Increase the quality of teaching and students’ commitment to learning so that they graduate with strong literacy and fundamental knowledge;

Encourage cost-effective administration and governance."

Journal of Controversial Ideas (United States)  - Journal

"The Journal of Controversial Ideas offers a forum for careful, rigorous, unpolemical discussion of issues that are widely considered controversial, in the sense that certain views about them might be regarded by many people as morally, socially, or ideologically objectionable or offensive. The journal offers authors the option to publish their articles under a pseudonym, in order to protect themselves from threats to their careers or physical safety.  We hope that this will also encourage readers to attend to the arguments and evidence in an essay rather than to who wrote it. Pseudonymous authors may choose to claim the authorship of their work at a later time, or to reveal it only to selected people (such as employers or prospective employers), or to keep their identity undisclosed indefinitely. Standard submissions using the authors’ actual names are also encouraged.

We welcome submissions in all areas of academic research insofar as the topics discussed are relevant to society at large.

The Journal of Controversial Ideas is not affiliated with any institution and does not support any beliefs or doctrines other than freedom of thought and expression. It is privately funded through donations. Please consider making a donation, thereby helping us to promote free inquiry."

Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) (CANADIAN)

"Canada’s only truly national public policy think tank based in Ottawa.

MLI is rigorously independent and non-partisan, as symbolized by its name. Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier were two outstanding and long-serving prime ministers who represent the best of Canada’s distinguished political tradition. A Tory and a Grit, an English-speaker and a French-speaker, each of them championed the values that led to the creation of Canada and its emergence as one of the world’s leading democracies and a place where people may live in peace and freedom under the rule of law."

Minding the Campus: Reforming Our Universities (United States)

"When Allan Bloom wrote The Closing Of The American Mind more than three decades ago, he probably never imagined that the absence of intellectual pluralism he decried would still be upon us. There is an undeniable divide between the Academy and the larger society. The curtain that has been drawn around colleges and universities no longer protects intellectual exchange and a search for the truth. In the modern academy, many certainly do not know all of the ideas worthy of consideration.

Minding the Campus hopes to change that by fostering a new climate of opinion that favors civil and honest engagement of all ideas, offering an engaged debate for readers concerned with the state of the modern university and the society it serves. We provide a simple central resource, featuring fresh original content from professors and academics and we draw upon the best from established magazines and publications, as well as from less-visited corners, from professional journals to blogs and student publications. In connecting resources from disparate worlds, we hope to connect their readers, fostering potential for real discussion and change. A conversation about America’s Universities is needed; look for it here.

Quadrant (Australian) - Journal

"Our principal purpose is the defence of the values, practices, and institutions of a free and open society by fostering literary and cultural activity of the highest standard. In particular, we are committed to the preservation and advancement of the cultural freedom that is the distinctive component of traditional Western culture….

Quadrant publishes materials of the highest standard that seek to encompass the cultural traditions that endure within, and enrich, our civilization. The culture we defend derives from the Classical and Christian traditions of Greece, Rome and Jerusalem, as well as those of the British sceptical Enlightenment, especially the writers of eighteenth-century Edinburgh."

QUILLETTE (Australian) - Journal

Quillette is an Australian based online magazine that focuses on long-form analysis and cultural commentary. We are politically non-partisan, but rely on reason, science, and humanism as our guiding values.

Rights Probe (CANADIAN)

"The mandate of Rights Probe is to research and explain this shifting legal ground and to challenge these trends. It will defend and promote the classical liberal conception of individual rights and the rule of law, in which people have primary control over their own lives and their own decisions; and will seek to inform and assist people to resist government coercion and mob rule."

UnHerd (United Kingdom) - Journal

"When the herd takes off in one direction, what do you do?

UnHerd is for people who dare to think for themselves.

The Western world is divided and uncertain. In the realms of politics, morality, science and culture, establishment opinion is skittish, but assertive — quick to form a consensus and intimidate dissent into silence. Meanwhile, increasingly powerful anti-establishment voices are fast forming into their own tribes. UnHerd tries to do something different — and harder. We are not interested in contrarianism, or opposition for its own sake; but we make it our mission to challenge herd mentality wherever we see it. This may be to speak for people who are otherwise dismissed; to challenge lazy consensus; or to make the argument for dimensions of existence that are lost in the din. We seek out thinkers who can bring the broader wisdom of history, philosophy, science and religious thought to bear on the current moment. We try to give a platform to the overlooked, the downtrodden and the traduced; and to people and places that the world has chosen to forget. We have no allegiance to any political party or tradition. Our writers often disagree with each other. Our approach is to test and retest assumptions, without fear or favour. The effect, we hope, is to get a little bit closer to the truth — and to make people think again.

The Shaughnessy Cohen Prize For Political Writing

    The bad weather continues so I will provide, for readers of non-fiction, five books which are the finalists for this prize, the winner of which will be announced in early May. Unfortunately, the London Public Libraries do not have the books by Savoie or Perrin. There are 31 "holds" on Fire Weather.

   The prize is named for Elizabeth Shaughnessy Cohen who was born here in London and who died twenty five years ago in the House of Commons. 
    The prize winner gets $25,000. I noticed that Mr. Vaillant was the recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize which is a good one to win - $125,000! Click on that link if you want to find more good books and the winner of that prize for 2024 will be announced in a few days.

1. The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart, Astra Taylor.
“Astra Taylor argues that while insecurity is central to the human condition, we have built a society that compounds and exacerbates that reality, and one where elites benefit from inequitable suffering. By intertwining her own story with the wisdom of poets and philosophers, Taylor encourages interconnectedness and shared vulnerability to reimagine our overwhelmed society into a more caring one. This is a helpful, hopeful book written at a time fraught with unease and negativity. The Age of Insecurity provides important perspectives on how we got here and shards of light that might just lead us out of this anxious place.”

2. Canada: Beyond Grudges, Grievances, and Disunity, Donald J. Savoie.“In this sweeping analysis of the internal divisions and identities that shape our nation’s political fabric, Donald J. Savoie lays bare the contradictions of a federal state and national political institutions that often fail to reflect Canada’s deeply entrenched regional, economic, linguistic, and cultural fault lines. The result has been politics of victimhood and grievance. Even so, those differences have created a national will to overcome them. Writing with clarity and conviction, Savoie distills the complexities of federalism into an easily accessible exploration of our nation. He captures the essence of a resilient Canadian spirit, where compromise and inclusive national social programs have forged an attachment to Canada greater than the forces that divide us.”

3. Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, John Vaillant.

“Like a blazing inferno that commands our attention and awe, we cannot look away from Fire Weather. John Vaillant brings the devastating 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire to life by introducing us, almost affectionately, to the human beings on the frontlines of the fossil fuel industry and the fire it produces that threatens us all. This is a deeply compelling, skillfully crafted story packed with information but completely free of ponderous lecturing. It is terrifying in its honest, textured description of what we have wrought in the name of progress, what we stand to lose, and where we might find the possibility of hope.”

4. Indictment: The Criminal Justice System on Trial, Benjamin Perrin.

“Gripping and timely, Indictment delivers a powerful vision for a complete transformation of Canada’s criminal justice system. Drawing on interviews with frontline workers, survivors of crime, and repeat offenders, Benjamin Perrin masterfully weaves together vivid case studies with the latest research on how to create a safer society for all. Shared experiences from marginalized groups, such as Indigenous people and Black Canadians, shape Perrin’s trauma-informed proposals to tackle everything from the opioid crisis to the problems with current jails. This beautifully written and rigorous critique is sure to enlighten any reader and offers fresh ideas and vital information to policymakers for overdue justice.”

5. Not Here: Why American Democracy Is Eroding and How Canada Can Protect Itself, Rob Goodman.

“Not Here is both a frightening and reassuring story written with clarity and absorbing analysis. With an American perspective, Goodman explores the decline of democracy and rise of authoritarianism in the United States and what it means for Canada. Deep social and economic ties between the two nations mean Canada is not exempt from the same tyrannous forces. In fact, Canadian politics shows similar strains, some of which originate from within our own borders. But Goodman has good news: we can find comfort knowing Canada has values, history, traditions, and institutions that can withstand the autocratic threat.”

To learn more about The Shaughnessy Cohen Prize For Political Writing and a list of the past winners see, Writers' Trust Canada. 
 One of my recent posts about award winning books is "Good Book Awards" which discusses the Scotiabank Giller Prize and The Cundill History Prize. 

Literary Landscapes

   This post is for those intending to go to the United States and who would like some literary guides. It is also meant for anyone who has no intention to go to the States, but would like to read about some of the more exotic locales from the safety of the couch.
   The literature related to particular places can be very interesting and useful for the travellers passing through them. The descriptions in fiction of the local areas visited are generally better than we can provide and reading them helps revive the memories of trips taken long ago. Local histories supply the background needed if one bothers to explore beyond the interstate intersections which are now all the same. If you are thinking of a road trip, Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon will put you in the proper mood. If you are staying home, settle in and read about such places as this one, which is the title of a book by Wallace Stegner about the west: Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs.
   More such books are found below. The first source will direct you to over a thousand novels. The other sources also include works of non-fiction. Many are related to the southeastern U.S., around where I grew up and will soon revisit. The northwest is not neglected, however, and we also hope to go in that direction when we can. 

Start From Here: "1,001 Novels: A Library of America," by Susan Straight. 
   No matter where you are, and whether you are leaving by car or staying on the couch, begin with this website. You can click on a map and quickly find the books and/or authors relating to a particular region. There are eleven of them which are nicely named and two are illustrated above. Some of the others: “Pointed Firs, Granite Coves and Revolution”, which relates to, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, and “Golden Dreams & Sapphire Waves”, which is about California and Hawaii. Here is a description from: "Mapping USA Via Novels, Not Left and RIght Politics," Giuliana Mayo, KCRW, Los Angeles, June 29, 2023:
"Partnering with ArcGIS Story Maps, Straight began putting together novels that spoke to a broader America....The interactive map allows people to zoom in on locations where novels are set all over the country. “[Story Maps] made it so easy to navigate the map. You click on one of the dots, and you see the exact GPS location [where the book takes place], and then the book cover comes up,” she explains. She also wrote two-sentence thumbnail descriptions for all 1,001 books.

Heading South

 You have missed this year's New Orleans Book Festival, but you can take the SOUTHERN LITERARY TRAIL, to learn about the places lived in, related to or written about by authors from Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. Among them you will find: Shelby Foote, Lilian Hellman, Harper Lee, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty and Margaret Mitchell, about whom I have posted. 

There is also a Facebook page for the SLT, and for Alabama, more information is found in the Encyclopedia of Alabama. For Mississippi see the "Southern Literary Trail Gallery" at Mississippi State University Libraries. 

Heading Southeast
 Additional information about Georgia is found on the "Guide to Georgia's Literary Landmarks" which provides links to the Georgia Writer's Museum, Flannery O'Connor's Homes, Martha Mitchell's House and others. If you are really interested in O'Connor, see the book: A Literary Guide to Flannery O'Connor's Georgia. I wrote recently about Erskine Caldwell and you can learn more about him by visiting Moreland, Georgia. It is also the home of Lewis Grizzard and if you come by my house I will give you my copy of "Don't Bend Over in the Garden, Granny, You Know Them Taters Got Eyes, for reading this far. 
   For South Carolina, see Libby Wiersema's, "Six South Carolina Literary Landmarks" for information about: James Dickey, Pat Conroy and some other local authors.
   North Carolina's Literary Trails can be explored by ordering a three volume set which covers all the areas of the Tar Heel State, the east, the Piedmont area and the mountains.

 

   "The Mountains volume brings together more than 170 writers from the past and present, including Sequoyah, Elizabeth Spencer, Fred Chappell, Charles Frazier, Kathryn Stripling Byer, Robert Morgan, William Bartram, Gail Godwin, O. Henry, Thomas Wolfe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Anne Tyler, Lillian Jackson Braun, Nina Simone, and Romulus Linney. Each tour provides information about the libraries, museums, colleges, bookstores, and other venues open to the public where writers regularly present their work or are represented in exhibits, events, performances, and festivals."

 

  "In the Piedmont volume featured authors include O. Henry, Doris Betts, Alex Haley, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, John Hart, Betty Smith, Edward R. Murrow, Patricia Cornwell, Carson McCullers, Maya Angelou, Lee Smith, Reynolds Price, and David Sedaris."

"The third volume focuses on the eastern portion of the state. Georgann Eubanks has organized the manuscript into three “trails”: "The Southeastern Corridor" from Raleigh to Wilmington, "The Middle Corridor" from eastern Wake County to Carteret County, and "The Northeastern Corridor" from Wake Forest to the northern Outer Banks. Each trail is further broken down into several tours of half-day segments. Each tour features a map detailing how to get from site to site, brief biographies of the writers included in the trail, passages from the writers that refer to the places along the trail, reading lists, and web addresses linking to further information about sites and authors."

More Books About Regional Books

The Ideals Guide to Literary Places in the U.S Paperback – January 1, 1998

by Michelle Prater Burke (Author)

"Here is a travel book with a difference! For the armchair traveler, there are fascinating descriptions, sketches, and quotes from the authors. For the more adventurous, there are maps, directions, and information on how to ger there and the features of each place. And there are over 50 places included, each associated with one of America's greatest writers. Clearly and logically presented, this is a beautiful book that is fun to read as well as a practical guide to America."

Traveling Literary America: A Complete Guide to Literary Landmarks Paperback – January 1, 2005

by B. J. Welborn

"Readers and travelers are guided to more than 200 homes and historic sites of America’s greatest writers—from the Jack London Ranch in northern California to William Faulkner’s home in Oxford, Mississippi. Clear driving directions and visitor instructions are combined with unique tidbits about each site and author, such as the story of Jack London’s custom-made furniture and the roll top desk and Dictaphone on display in his study. Literary enthusiasts are guided to the site of Thoreau’s bean field, where they can poke around an exact replica of his cabin. They can drop in on Margaret Mitchell’s recently restored Atlanta apartment or visit John Steinbeck’s haunts in the cozy California seaside town of Pacific Grove. This family-oriented, user-friendly guide teaches literary folk about writers' work, their philosophies, and the forces that compelled them to write. All 50 states are represented, and the literary sites are divided by geographic regions."

A Literary Tour Guide to the United States: Northeast, Paperback – May 1, 1978

by Emilie C. Harting (Author)

"A comprehensive guide to visiting the homes and haunts of American writers and the settings of their works in the U.S. Northeast."

Northwest Passages: A Literary Anthology of the Pacific Northwest from Coyote Tales to Roadside Attractions, Bruce Barcott.

"Northwest Passages, an anthology of approximately 90 short pieces and excerpts from longer works published over the last two centuries, is by far the more exhaustive treatment of the region. Its selections, from the legends of native tribes to the stories and poems of the freshest transplants, provide a remarkably complete history of the Northwest. As for what the area is like, the answers to be gleaned from works by Rudyard Kipling, Chief Joseph, lack Kerouac, Theodore Roethke, and Raymond Carver, to name just a few, are as varied as a landscape that includes deserts, mountains, fertile valleys and plains, forests, beaches, and water in unparalleled abundance. The only unanimity is inspired by the weather. The explorer William Clark reported "rain falling in torrents," and, on the evidence of these pieces, the sky has scarcely cleared since. As Seattle poet Denise Levertov notes, "Gray is the price/of neighboring with eagles, of knowing / a mountain's vast presence, seen, or unseen."

Local London Readers: 

  As I mentioned above somewhere, I am willing to part with my copy of Grizzard's book about Granny. Almost by accident, I suppose, I have acquired other books of regional interest, which I am quite willing to lend if you want to come by and pick them up. Without looking around much, I can think of:

About ten books by Reynolds Price (North Carolina.) 
About the same number by RIchard Russo (New York State.)

A few by Pat Conroy and Padgett Powell (South Carolina)

A few about the Northwest - e.g. Notes From the Century Before, Passage to Juneau and Far Corner.

If you wish to leave the continent, there are more books, such as this one about some remote islands in the Indian Ocean - Kings of the Cocos. 

Just remember, I used to work in libraries and there will be fines. 

Beyond the Palewall (11)

How Bad Is It?
   About eight years ago I provided a post with the title "It's Even Worse Than It Looks." It copied the title of a recently published book which answered the question posed above. A few years later, a new edition of the book appeared with a cover proclaiming, It's Even Worse Than It Was.  A few might want to quibble about the indefinite "It's", so I will say, Things Have Gotten Even Worse Than They Were Then. Proof is offered.
   The Republican nominee for the Superintendent of Public Schools in North Carolina disagreed with the suggestion that Barack Obama be sent to Guantánamo Bay for treason. She offered a better idea (note, she is not a Proud Boy, just a good ol' GOP mom):

I prefer a Pay Per View of him in front of the firing squad. I do not want to waste another dime on supporting his life. We could make some money back from televising his death.

She also called for the killing of then-President Elect Joe Biden. We live in an age of both misinformation and disinformation, so I will offer supporting sources, which some of you may distrust: "One Purple State is 'Testing the Outer Limits of MAGAism,", Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times, Mar.27, 2024 and, "GOP Nominee to Run North Carolina Public Schools Called for Violence Against Democrats, Including Executing Obama and Biden," Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, CNN, March 15, 2024. 

The Canadian Drought
   Canada is not much noticed south of here, but appeared recently in this headline: "World News: Drought Hampers Canada Push To Become a Hydro Superpower --- About 70% of the Country is Suffering from Abnormally Dry Weather Conditions," Vipal Monga, The Wall Street Journal, March 28, 2024. It may be the case that this publication is more concerned about Nestlé's stock price than thirsty Canadians.

The Canadian province of Quebec has big plans of becoming the "battery of the U.S. northeast" by feeding power generated from its dams and other hydro plants to millions of people in Vermont, Massachusetts and New York state. But dry conditions that have affected energy output worldwide are forcing one of the world's largest hydropower producers to cut exports....
But drought conditions extending from the west coast to the east are so bad that rivers and lakes in parts of Canada are drying up....
While one bad year shouldn't cause too much concern, the north often has periods of persistent drought, and climate change could make those periods much worse, threatening the sustainability of Quebec's hydro supply, Boucher said. "The past is becoming less of a good analog for what is going to occur in the future," he said.
The impact threatens to undermine Canada's reputation as a stable provider of clean and sustainable energy, and risks derailing the nation's efforts to cut greenhouse-gas emissions....
The province of British Columbia, Canada's second-largest hydro producer, has been in a drought since the middle of 2022. Water levels in the giant reserves in the northern and southeastern regions of British Columbia have fallen because there has been less snow in the winter and less rain in the spring, forcing the province to conserve water, said a spokesman for BC Hydro, the provincial utility.

Scam Alert!
  Another disconcerting headline is this one from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission:  "As Nationwide Fraud Losses Top $10 Billion in 2023, FTC Steps Up Efforts to Protect the Public: Investment Scams Lead in Reported Losses at More Than $4.6 Billion," Feb. 9, 2024. You also probably received yesterday, an alert from Amazon which notes that, "In 2023, we initiated takedown of more than 40,000 phishing websites and 10,000 phone numbers impersonating Amazon. However, the fight against scammers is never over."
A picture is worth a billion words:

                                              Quotes Worth Quoting

For Husbands: Notice Your Wife's New Glasses or Hair Cut:

In The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash., Ammi Midstokke reacted to the latest compliment from her husband. “I was struck by a realization: Either I am perfect or my husband enjoys the relative peace that reigns when we both pretend I am,” she wrote.

On Politics: This title and brief summary will save you from having to read all of the polls between now an November: 

"The Meme-ification of American Politics," Clare Malone, The Atlantic, Jan.25, 2024

"Why more and more voters will be forming opinions in the 2024 election based on a funny video that their cousin’s husband’s sister shared in the group chat."

On The Culture Wars and Cancel Culture: If you are older and accused of becoming more conservative, keep this quotation in mind and reply that, you are not more conservative, but just continuing to be reasonable:

"That is why cancel culture is so worrisome: not because it reflects the familiar political divide between left and right, but because it reflects a generational war between old and young, a war between liberals and illiberals across parties. Liberals in my generation are surprised, and not a little uncomfortable, to find themselves opposing illiberals to their left and supporting conservatives to their right, sharing concern about cancel culture’s methods and the take-no-prisoners ideology that justifies them."

That is from this review: 

- “The Ghost of Joe McCarthy: Why Universities Have Surrendered on Free Speech Again,” Carol Tavris, Times Literary Supplement, Feb. 9, 2024.